[NTLUG:Discuss] A client solution using Linux

[Bug Hunter]

  You can do this, but my opinion it will take 6 months to 1 year to bring
to manufacturable status.

  The basic problem with ATM's is they tend to rely on slow modem links.
Therefore, you have the same limitations as calling in from home.  I would
recommend taking one of the USB cameras that are now proliferating, and
use that camera with a microphone, and capture about 15 frames a second to
send to mexico or wherever.

  Another problem with this is the rate at which technology is moving.
You will need to be prepared to swap out hardware as your bandwidth
increases.  The huge cost of deployment is something else also.

  Now that RSA is in the public domain, be sure to encrypt the images and
voice.  Most of the public won't use it. the ones that do will appreciate
it, including the evil ones.  

  One thing to note, you must compress any data you transmit before you
encrypt that data.  I managed an encryption project at a small company 
for an IBM contract, and that is one thing that confused some folks.
Encrypted data has no redundancies, and therefore cannot be compressed.
However, compressed data can be encrypted.  Technically speaking,
compressed data is encrypted, but the decryption sequence is well known,
therefore it isn't encrypted.  :)



On Sun, 22 Oct 2000, Daniel Hauck wrote:

> I have been warned that I might be heavily criticized for bringing this
> topic up in the discussion list, but I can think of no better place as this
> is not simply a "job."  It's an announcement, it's a request for input and
> also a request for volunteers.
> 
> I'm the network systems administrator at Amstar Systems Inc.  We are located
> in Carrollton, TX.  The core of our business is ATMs.  (Automated Teller
> Machines)  We have been working on an ambitious project surrounding
> international monetary exchange.  Actually, we're working on a lot more than
> only that, but I'm trying to keep this simple.
> 
> On our ATM client machines, we want to be able to handle not only
> traditional ATM transactions, but enhanced services as well.  Enhanced
> services would include money transfers, check cashing, money order printing,
> currency exchange and virtually any financial service you can imagine.
> 
> Billions of dollars are sent from Texas to Mexico on a constant basis.
> Mexican workers find work in the U.S. and send as much money as they can
> back home to their families.  Currently, these transfers are being handled
> by companies such as Western Union.  To help manage the transport, prepaid
> phone cards are sold so that the transfer can be coordinated on both sides.
> We have been working with a major bank in Mexico and even with Mexico's
> President Fox on this project.  We believe we can do it better. [Using
> Linux]
> 
> Various level of prototyping has been done under Windows but we will not
> accept the "blue screen of death" on our products and services.  We know we
> will be spending tens or even hundreds of thousands on creating the software
> for this project, why do we also need to spend thousands more on licensing
> the operating system too?  That's why we are choosing Linux as our OS
> platform on this project.
> 
> One of our stumbling blocks at the moment is creating a system for the
> recording, transport and play back of "video letters."  Instead of simply
> selling phone cards and letting people send money, we think these families
> who are so far apart would enjoy being able to see each other as well.  We
> need a cost effective method that we can deploy relatively quickly to
> accomplish this.
> 
> If you have any tested solutions to offer, then by all means submit them
> back to me.  If you are a developer and would like a piece of the pie, then
> you may contact me in response to this as well.  This is not a "job"
> listing.  It's a chance for anyone to offer up what they know.  If you want
> to offer your knowledge on this forum, I would appreciate the guidance.  If
> you want to make a few thousand dollars from what you already know, I'm sure
> that will also be acceptable.  If you want a piece of the pie before our
> IPO, a few thousands could turn into a few million.
> 
> My apologies to anyone who thinks my message is in the wrong list, but I
> think this project has enough value to the members here to be of interesting
> note.  At the very least, "bragging rights."  You guys saw it here first.
> 
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